Utah State University alumni, Lindsay and Lexie Kite, recently published a book focusing on body-image resilience. The Utah Women and Leadership Project at USU hosted the sisters for a virtual seminar last week.
“Positive body image isn’t believing your body looks good, it’s knowing your body is good regardless of how it looks,” said Lindsay Kite during the seminar last week.
Lindsay and her sister Lexie run the non-profit Beauty Redefined. Their recently published book is entitled “More Than a Body: Your Body is an Instrument, Not an Ornament.” At a seminar with the same title on Thursday, the sisters presented on their work in body image resilience.
“I’ll go ahead and just summarize what we want you to take home from this presentation, is this knowledge that you are more than a body, more than an object, more than something to be looked at and admired,” said Lexie Kite.
Lexie said self objectification is something many people struggle with and can be harmful because according to research, when you feel self conscious you perform worse on everything from academic activities like math tests to physical activities like sports. She went on to explain that many people struggle with self objectification and how that can be harmful.
“You can’t get into a flow state that you want to when you’re working out, or when you’re creating art, or singing, or dancing or whatever the thing might be,” Lexie said. “In every way when you self-objectify, you lose. You miss out on your life and your existence by picturing yourself from the outside.”
Reclaiming your use of media is the first step, Lexie said.
“The best way to do that, to take your power back, is to go on an intermittent media fast,” she said. “That means we want you to take at least a day away from all forms of media you can, especially social media.”
Another key thing to remember the sisters say is your body is an instrument, not an ornament.
“Repeat to yourself that my body is an instrument for my use, my experience and my benefit. It is not an ornament to be judged and admired by me or by anyone else. That puts the power back in your body, in your hands.”
